Nottinghamshire Police consider handing 999 calls to private firm

Danielle Hayden

Three East Midlands police forces are considering letting a private security firm handle their emergency calls.

Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and Northamptonshire forces are allowing G4S to carry out a study to see what it might be able to offer in their control rooms.

Assistant chief constable Phil Kay, of Leicestershire Police, has released a statement on behalf of all three forces, which explains G4S will be carrying out a feasibility study into contact management as part of a three-force ‘strategic alliance’.

He said: “The approach has been made without the need for any commitment or impact on current structures.

“I want to reiterate that this is only research at the moment, under the principle of a strategic alliance, to allow informed decisions about opportunities that other organisations could offer. No commitment has been made to accept their suggestions, and we have not signed up to use their service.

“As part of developing a strategic alliance, we will be reviewing all areas of the business and our service to the public will be at the heart of what we do.”

This comes after the firm already successfully took over the control room at Lincolshire Police in April 2012.

John Shaw, managing director for public services at G4S, said: “The improvements we’ve made at the control room in Lincolnshire have reduced response time and increased caller satisfaction, meaning Lincolnshire Police now has one of the top performing control rooms in the country.

“We’re looking at how Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and Northamptonshire may be able to achieve the same improvements.”